Let's not beat about the bush - the rubbish collection system in Brighton and Hove is a shambles.

Firstly, a two day strike by binmen cripples the whole city for more than two weeks. Why on earth should it take so long to get back to normal?

Then there is the farce of the new wheelie bins. My mother-in-law lives in one of the areas trialling these. She has two steps leading down to the pavement. She didn't have her bin emptied the first week and a binman grudgingly said he would empty it if she got it to the top of the steps, which she did.

The following week she left it in the same place but it wasn't emptied. Apparently, they will only empty it if it is on the pavement.

There must be numerous old people who can't get the bin to the pavement or back. And what about families for whom the bin is too small and extra black sacks by the bin won't be taken away?

Then, of course, there's the saga of the black recycling boxes for newspapers whose the lids don't fit so that the papers blow all over the street. You never know when to put them out, as they never come at the scheduled time.

For this wonderful service, we are now expected to pay an extra eight per cent on our council tax. As a civil servant who received a 2.8 per cent rise this year, I feel particularly incensed.

To cap it all, the binmen are going to receive a bonus for making up the deliveries lost through Easter.

No wonder they took so long to clear up after the two day strike. It obviously pays dividends to miss a couple of days delivery

-Jenny Ray, Brighton